communication which he wished to make to him. Caesar concluded not to
grant another interview, and he did not think it prudent to send any one
of his principal officers as an embassador, for fear that he might be
treacherously seized and held as a hostage. He accordingly sent an
ordinary messenger, accompanied by one or two men. These men were all
seized and put in irons as soon as they reached the camp of Ariovistus,
and Caesar now prepared in earnest for giving his enemy battle.

[Sidenote: Defeat of the Germans.]

He proved himself as skillful and efficient in arranging and managing
the combat as he had been sagacious and adroit in the negotiations which
preceded it. Several days were spent in maneuvers and movements, by
which each party endeavored to gain some advantage over the other in
respect to their position in the approaching struggle. When at length
the combat came, Caesar and his legions were entirely and triumphantly
successful. The Germans were put totally to flight. Their baggage and
stores were all seized, and the troops themselves fled in dismay by all
the roads which led back to the Rhine; and there those who succeeded in
escaping death from the Romans, who pursued them all the way, embarked
in boats and upon rafts, and returned to their homes. Ariovistus himself
found a small boat, in which, with one or two followers, he succeeded in
getting across the stream.

[Sidenote: Release of Caesar's messenger.]

As Caesar, at the head of a body of his troops, was pursuing the enemy
in this their flight, he overtook one party who had a prisoner with them
confined by iron chains fastened to his limbs, and whom they were
hurrying rapidly along. This prisoner proved to be the messenger that